New Hope
by Peace Love and the Color Pink
Summary: For Josh and his little sister Kailey the town of New Hope is more like no hope, with the town over run by Crazy Redd's thieves. Then a mysterious hedgehog falls from the sky. Can he be the hero they need? Maybe if he could remember who he is...
1. Chapter 1: No Hope?

Chapter 1: No Hope?

Water drizzled from the watering can onto the flower. The girl smiled at her flowers, her brown pigtails blew in the wind.

"Kailey!" she heard a voice behind her say.

She didn't even turn around, she already knew who it was. "Good morning, Josh," she said when the footsteps got louder.

"Mornin'."

Kailey turned around to face him. "Do you ever comb your hair?" she asked motioning to his blue spiked hairdo.

"Of course I do! How do you think it stays like this?" he pointed at his hair.

Kailey rolled her eyes.

Josh frowned at Kailey's house.

She turned to see what he was frowning at then turned back to him. "What is it?"

"Why did you pick the house at the edge of town away from everyone?"

"It was a good spot for my garden. Here I can be alone just me and my flowers," she narrowed her eyes at him, "except _someone_ keeps coming over here."

"What? You'd kick your own brother out of your garden?"

"I'm teasing you of course!" she walked away and Josh followed her. "So why did you pick the house near Town Hall?"

"That's easy, so I could be in the middle of all the action!"

"Of course," she smiled slightly. "So what are we doing today?"

He ran up to walk beside her. "Usual schedule I suppose, check Nook's shop, check the Able Sister's shop, check the recycling bin, fish, catch bugs, go to the beach…"

She looked down. "I'm not sure I feel like playing much today."

He looked at her, concerned. "Why not?"

"I just don't feel like it."

"Is it because of what happened to Lucy the other day?"

She looked away.

"Just because the town's not in the best shape right now doesn't mean we can't have fun. What? No one else is happy so you feel guilty being happy?"

She looked up. "It's just-"

He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her toward him. "Just smile, Kailey."

"Smile?"

"Sometimes smiling can make things a little better. Besides if we don't then who's going to?"

"Now you sound like mom," she said pulling away from him. She walked away.

"Do I really?" he asked before following her.

They kept walking toward Tom Nook's shop. Two animals ran past them.

"Someone stop them!" a Dalmatian screamed as she ran up.

"What's wrong Portia?" asked Kailey.

"Those ruffians just ran off with my art collection!"

Kailey looked down.

"Kailey…," said Josh.

She looked up at him. "Just smile?" she asked with a look that to Josh seemed to say "I use to trust you".

"Kailey-"

"I got to go!" she ran off.

He sighed and looked up at the bright blue sky. "If there's a shooting star up there somewhere then I wish someone, anyone would come and save us, someone my sister could actually trust," he whispered. He didn't believe in wishing upon stars, yet there he was wishing anyways.

* * *

><p>Evil laughter echoed through the metal halls. "Muahuahuahuahuahuahua! Any minute now that pest will come crashing in here and I'll be rid of him forever! Is that machine ready?"<p>

"Yes," said a small robot.

He laughed evilly again. "All we have to do is wait."

_Crash!_

A blue ball came spin-balling through the door and landed in the middle of the room. "What's the big idea this time, Eggman? Kidnapping Amy and Cream, then sending Cream to tell me Amy's in trouble. You're obviously setting a trap for me, so what is it?"

"Ah, Sonic, you're just in time. Behold!" Eggman held out his hand as a giant robot slowly stepped forward from the back of the room.

The robot was rectangular shaped and painted red and there was a symbol that looked like Eggman's face painted on it's chest.

"The Egg Guard!"

"You seriously don't have much imagination when it comes to names."

"Nice knowing you, Sonic the Hedgehog," Eggman grinned evilly.

Sonic looked up at the Egg Guard. "Can we make this quick? I'm kinda strapped for time."

The Egg Guard tried to stomp him but he jumped to the side.

"Guess that's a no," he ran to the back of the room and ran up the wall. When he got high up on the wall he leaped off and hit the back of the Egg Guard's head.

It fell and crashed through a wall.

Eggman gaped.

Sonic landed on his feet. "Give it up, you can't kill me. You should know that from the last one hundred times you tried," he stepped closer to Eggman.

Eggman fell on his knees. "Please don't hurt me, I can change!"

"Oh come _on! _Last time you tried that you split the world in to pieces and turned me in to a werehog. Just let Amy go so I can get out of here before she catches me._"_

A sly smile came across Eggman's face. He slammed his fist on a button on a control board next to him.

The sounds of a machine starting were heard. Lights came on in the back of the room to reveal a gate looking machine.

Sonic's head whipped around when he heard the machine.

A portal opened in the gate.

Sonic took a step back. "Woah!"

The Egg Guards eyes lit up and it slowly lifted it's head, it jumped to it's feet shaking the whole room in the process.

"Huh?" Sonic turned around in time to see the Egg Guard's giant hand grab him. He struggled to get free but failed.

The giant robot threw him toward the gate.

Eggman laughed evilly as Sonic disappeared into the portal.


	2. Chapter 2: A Midnight Fight

Chapter 2: A Midnight Fight

Kailey lay stretched out on the grass next to her friend, staring at the night sky.

The two girls were giggling.

"Hey Lucy, look at those stars there," said Kailey pointing at the sky. "They look like a goose."

Lucy cocked her head to the side. "If you say so."

Kailey laughed. "What you don't think so?"

She shook her head. "Sorry all I see is stars."

They laughed again.

"Thanks, Kailey, for showing me these stars."

"Oh it's no problem. I thought I'd cheer you up after those goons stole all your stuff."

"Don't worry about that, it was nothing I couldn't buy again."

"Yeah but still, it's wrong, someone should stop them," she said still looking at the stars.

"I wish I could," she added more quietly.

Lucy laughed. "That's Kailey for you, always a fighter. But thanks again, it was nice of you to think of me."

She smiled. "You're welcome."

"Oh hi, Josh."

Kailey turned and saw her brother walking up, her smile faded.

"Hi, Lucy," he smiled at Kailey, but frowned when he saw that she returned his smile with a blank stare.

"I better be getting to bed," said Lucy. The two girls sat up. "Good night, Kailey!" she said walking away.

Kailey waved to her.

"Nice night," Josh said after Lucy left.

"Mhm."

"It's getting late we probably should go inside."

"Don't do that," she said plainly.

He looked confused "Don't do what?"

"You don't know how to talk to me so don't. I don't need you to tell me what to do, and I don't need you to baby me, OK?"

"I'm not trying to baby you."

"Yes you are!"

"Well maybe I wouldn't if you'd quit acting like one."

"I do not."

"Do to!"

She glared at him.

A strong wind began to blow.

"Why are even mad at me?"

She looked away.

"Huh? What is it?"

"Just smile Kailey," she said in a bad attempt at Josh's voice.

"_That's_ why you're mad?" he asked surprised.

Her face tightened and she looked at him. "I'm mad because I don't know when I can believe you anymore!"

On his face was sadness and realization, but Kailey didn't notice.

"You told me this town would be great! You told me we could trust Redd! You told me everything's alright…but it's not."

"Kailey…."

"Kailey!"

They turned and saw Lucy running up again, this time she was scared.

"Lucy?" asked Kailey.

Lucy reached them breathing hard. "I'm so glad you're OK."

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked her.

Lucy pointed up at the sky. When they looked wind blew strong into their faces. There in the sky above the western part of town was a hole.


	3. Chapter 3: A Falling Star

Chapter 3: A Falling Star

They had to squint to see.

"What is it?" Kailey asked. She had to shout to be heard.

"I don't know," Josh shouted back. He squinted harder his eyes watering. An object fell out of the hole, yelling, and landed in a patch of trees. The hole in the sky snapped shut and the wind immediately stopped.

The three stood there staring at where the hole used to be.

"What was that that fell from the sky?" Kailey asked concerned.

"I don't know," said Josh. "I'll go see," he began to walk away.

Kailey started to follow him when Lucy grabbed her arm.

"Wait! Didn't you hear it scream?" Lucy asked terrified. "That thing's alive! …Or at least it _was_ alive."

Kailey turned away from her. "It might be hurt."

She pulled on her arm to get her to look at her again. "What if it's…" she gulped, "an alien?"

"Please there's no such thing as aliens."

"Are you sure? I've heard that some people have seen UFO's fly overhead."

"Lucy, you've got to quit believing everything people tell you."

Josh looked at his sister with narrowed eyes.

"I'll be fine," she pulled her arm away from Lucy and her and Josh walked off.

It didn't take long to walk to the other side of town.

Josh stopped in front of the small forest and turned to Kailey. "Lady's first?" he asked nonchalantly.

She stared at the trees wide eyed, and looking as if she was frozen.

He raised an eyebrow. "I thought you weren't scared."

She looked at him. "I couldn't act scared in front of Lucy."

He shook his head and walked on.

They tip toed a little ways through the trees until they saw a blue hedgehog lying in the grass with his head laying on a rock.

"Oh my," she whispered. "Did he land on that?"

"I don't know."

She stepped closer and he held his hand out to stop her.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Didn't we go over this? You don't have to protect me every second of everyday!"

"Huh?" they both heard a voice say. They turned to the hedgehog.

He was sitting up now, looking around. "Where am I?" he stopped and stared at them. "Who are you?"

"You're alive!" said Josh. "That's good, unless you're going to eat our brains," he joked.

"Why would I eat your brains?"

"Yeah never mind," he laughed nervously.

Kailey rolled her eyes.

"I'm Josh. You're in the town of New Hope."

"More like no hope," she grumbled behind him.

He frowned. "This is my little sister, Kailey."

The hedgehog stood up. "I'm-"

Josh and Kailey jumped back a step.

He looked back and forth between them. "What?"

Josh looked at his sister then back at the hedgehog. "We're…" he started slowly, "not sure we can trust you."

"Afraid I'll eat your brains?"

"Not exactly," Josh answered.

He laughed. "Don't worry, I come in peace," he looked away and whispered to himself, "I think.…"

Kailey seemed to relax a little. "OK… um do you have any clothes?"

"Why?"

"I don't know about where you come from, but here people wear clothes," said Josh.

"Oh…" he looked down at himself. "Shoes and gloves don't count?"

"Don't worry about it," she said. "We can go to Josh's house to get you a shirt."

Josh stepped closer to Kailey. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" he whispered. "Letting him in my house?"

"He fell from the sky, he might be hurt and he doesn't know where he is, how dangerous can he be?"

He sighed. "I hope you're right."

"Of course I'm right," she said stubbornly.

"OK," Josh said louder where the hedgehog could hear him. "Follow me."

* * *

><p>The hedgehog sat on the sofa looking around. While across from him Josh rummaged through his dresser. Kailey stood next to Josh leaning her back against the wall, as she watched the blue hedgehog.<p>

"Stop that," Josh said quietly.

"Stop what?" she asked.

"Staring at him. It's rude to stare at people, especially naked people."

Kailey rolled her eyes. "So where do you think he's from?" she whispered.

"I don't know, ask him." He spoke up, "OK I have a skull shirt, flame shirt, danger shirt."

The hedgehog and Kailey both frowned.

"Skulls?" he asked.

"I don't think so," said Kailey.

"Fine, you can borrow my blue retro shirt," he handed him the shirt without looking at him.

After he put on the shirt Kailey sat down on the couch. "So, what's your name?"

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the…uh…ah!" he held his head in his hands. "Why can't I remember?"

She scooted closer to him and patted his arm. "It's OK. Do you remember anything?"

He lifted his head "No, I just woke up here with a huge headache."

"_So much for asking him,"_ she thought.


	4. Chapter 4: Hopeless

Chapter 4: Hopeless

"Are you sure there's nothing that you remember?" asked Josh. "A person or a place?"

Sonic stared at the wall for a moment before shaking his head. "No, I don't remember anything except how to talk and my own name. Well most of it anyways, I feel like there's more to it though."

"It's OK, we'll help you remember."

Kailey looked at her brother and mouthed the word "How?"

He shrugged and put his finger in front of his mouth to shush her.

"Thanks, but I can figure it out on my own," he stood up. "I just need to find someone I know."

Kailey jumped up. "You can't leave now! It's dark, and you don't even know where to go!"

"Well I suppose I could stay for now, at least until I know where to go."

"It'll be safer," said Josh.

She looked down to the side. "I'm not so sure about that," she said quietly.

"What do you mean?" asked Sonic.

She looked to her brother and he sighed.

Sonic turned to Josh.

"There's a guy named Crazy Redd, he runs a black market in the city, wait do you know what a black market even is?" he asked.

Sonic stared at him with narrowed eyes as if trying to remember.

"Yeah probably not," he said glancing at the ceiling. "It's a shop where someone sells stolen stuff. It's not good."

"Doesn't sound good."

"Yeah well, it gets worse, because he gets his stolen stuff from the people of New Hope."

His eyes widened slightly. "You guys?"

He nodded. "He has his goons rob us about every day, and they don't care much if we get hurt."

"Sounds like a real badnik," _"Badnik…why did I say badnik?" _"Doesn't anyone do anything about it?"

"Well we used to have guards, but before Redd started stealing from us he paid them a lot of money to retire," said Kailey. "And it seems that either no one knows about us or cares enough about us to help. It's one big mess if you ask me."

"Sure sounds like it…" Sonic trailed off. He stared out the window. He didn't know who he was, and he didn't know where he was, but something told him he couldn't leave. Someone had to help these kids, and if no one else would…. His eyes lit up. "I think I will stay here, for now anyway."

"Wait, we told you all that and you still want to stay?" she asked, surprised.

"Yeah, how bad can it be? It might even be fun!" He said giving them a thumbs up.

The two looked at Sonic like he'd gone crazy.

"What?"

She shook her head. "It's fine," _"I just think you're really weird that's all."_

"So…" Josh said trying to think of a new subject. "Where are you going to stay?"

"Stay?"

"You got to stay somewhere," said Kailey. "Oh I got it! You can stay at the house by the beach! No one lives there, it's perfect!"

"Nook's isn't open," said Josh. "How will we buy it?"

"It'll be fine, we'll buy it tomorrow," she walked toward the door but Josh stopped her.

"Kailey, no, you can't stay at a house before you buy it."

"No one will even know. We'll go to Nook's first thing in the morning, OK?" she said obviously annoyed. She walked out of the house without closing the door behind her.

Josh sighed.

"She's a handful isn't she?" asked Sonic.

"More than you know," he said before following his sister.

When they were all outside she started to lead the way then stopped and turned toward the guys. "Oh, one more thing, it would probably be best if we got there without running in to anyone."

"Why?" asked Sonic.

"She's afraid of getting caught."

"No! It's just, never mind," she looked around nervously.

Josh looked at Sonic with a look that clearly meant 'see what I mean?'

"Let's just go," she led them past a tree without knowing someone was on the other side.

"What are you two doing out so late?"

Josh and Kailey jumped at the sound of someone else's voice.

"Mitzi," said Kailey. "I could ask you the same question."

"Right, sorry," she said stepping closer to them. "There was this freak wind storm! It woke me up but by the time I got outside it had stopped! Isn't that weird?"

"Mhm, so why are you still up?" she asked.

"I couldn't get back to sleep, and I was sure I heard someone yelling, I had to make sure everyone was OK."

"Well we're all OK," she said. "And we got to go, so if you'll excuse us-"

"Wait a minute," Mitzi said before Kailey could get away. "Who's he?" she nodded to Sonic.

"Oh, he's just someone who dropped in for a visit."

Josh laughed at the word dropped.

"I'm Sonic."

Mitzi smiled. "Hi, I'm Mitzi."

"We'd love to stay and chat," she said as she grabbed Sonic's arm and started to drag him off, "but we gotta go."

She looked at them confused. "Why are you going that way?"

"Showing Sonic his new house," said Josh.

"I thought you said he was just visiting."

"He was," said Kailey, "and now he's staying. Bye!" She ran off still dragging Sonic behind her.

Josh ran off after them.

Mitzi watched them leave, still confused.


	5. Chapter 5: Nook

Chapter 5: Nook

Sonic stood on the beach in front of his small house. He stared at the ocean, he wasn't sure what but something about it seemed familiar. Was it the waves? The sand? The sunrise? Just then Josh and Kailey ran up.

"Good morning!" Josh called while he was still a ways away.

Sonic turned away from the beach. "Good morning."

They reached the beach.

Kailey smiled at Sonic, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Sonic cocked an eyespace.

"She thought you might have a concussion," Josh said, answering Sonic's unasked question.

"Why?"

"Well you did forget where you came from."

"That's true. So where to?"

"Nookington's," Josh said at the same time Kailey said "Able Sisters."

He turned to his sister. "You said we would go to Nook's in the morning."

"And we will, I just thought you'd want your shirt back," she motioned to Josh's shirt Sonic was still wearing.

He sighed. "Fine, they're near each other anyways."

They all started to walk off. "Do you have any bells?" asked Josh.

"How would he have bells?" asked Kailey.

"I don't know I just thought he might."

"What are bells?"

The three were walking past Nook's toward the Able Sister's when they heard a voice behind them.

"Ahem," the voice said.

The three turned around to see a raccoon.

"Er, Tom Nook!" said Kailey, slightly worried.

Tom Nook ignored her. "You must be Sonic, I need to talk to you."

"You do?" Sonic asked not sure that was a good thing.

"Yes, Mitzi told me you were staying at the house at the beach."

"She what? That's it, I'm gonna-" Kailey began to march off but Josh put his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"But no one's bought it so it still belongs to me…."

"Nook, your shop wasn't open so what were we supposed-"

"It's fine," he said cutting her off.

She stopped talking, surprised. "It is?"

"Yes as long as you buy it now all will be forgiven."

"Great, actually that's what we were planning on doing," said Josh.

Kailey pulled out her wallet.

"You don't need to do that, I have another idea of how he can pay for it."

"How?" Sonic asked hesitantly.

"You see, I have these errands that I just can't find the time for, this is perfect, you can work for me to pay for the house!"

"What?"

"This is your uniform," he handed him a shirt that he just 'happened' to have in his pocket at the time.

"But I never agreed-"

"Put that on and meet me inside, and hurry I don't have all day!" he ran back inside his shop.

Sonic turned to Josh and Kailey. "I am not becoming that raccoon's slave!"

"It's OK, you probably would have had to work for him anyways," she sighed.

"You won't have to work for him forever."

"Good, cause I'm not gonna!"

"At least I can have my shirt back."

He held up the uniform and frowned.

Josh pointed to some trees. "You can change behind those."

A minute later Sonic came out wearing the uniform. "Who makes people wear pictures of bitten turnips?"

"Nook," said Kailey. "I think it's his way of torturing us."

"It's not that bad," said Josh.

"Not that bad?" she asked.

"No, it could be a lot worse," he turned to Sonic. "You should probably go see what Nook wants you to do."

"You mean I actually have to work for him?"

"Don't worry, we'll help ya," he said.

Sonic went into Nookingtons and came out a few minutes later holding a bunch of potted plants. "He wants me to plant these around his shop," he set the flowers down on the ground. "But I don't know the first thing about planting flowers."

"Don't worry," said Josh. "That's what you have us for."

The three got to work digging holes for the flowers to go in.

Kailey picked up a pot of white cosmos.

"Hey, aren't those your friend Lucy's favorite?" asked Josh. "Maybe you should take her those when were done."

She gasped. "Lucy! I had forgotten about her! She doesn't even know we're OK. I better go talk to her," she took off running still holding the cosmos.

They watched her go.

Josh turned back to the hole he was digging. "Figures," he muttered.

"What?"

"She's the biggest green thumb of the whole town and she waits until we're planting flowers to run out on us."

Later Kailey was running back to Nookington's when she saw the flowers already planted and the guys leaning against the building with their arms crossed.

"Careful running," said Josh. "You'll kill all the grass."

She put her arms out to the side. "What grass?" She ran up to them. "You guys did a good job with the flowers. Did all the work without me?"

"Well we finished the flowers, but you weren't back yet so we took a break. Couldn't let you get out of all the work."

"So what do we do now?"

Josh picked a rolled up carpet off the ground and handed it to her. "He wants us to deliver that to Lucy."

"What? I just got back from Lucy's. It took me an hour and a half to get away from her the last time!"

"Mhm, try not to be gone so long this time."

"Oh come on! She's really nice and all but…can't one of you go?"

"Nope, Nook wants us to clean his storeroom, and since you and Lucy are such good friends.…"

"Fine," she walked off.

Josh smirked.

"Did you do that cause she left us to all the work?"

"Yeah, now come on."

They went into Nook's basement to find an absolutely huge room packed with all kinds of different stuff.

Josh gaped. "No wonder he can sell different things every day."

Sonic looked around, trying to figure out how to walk around all the stuff. "How are we going to clean this?"

"We should have let Kailey help us."


	6. Chapter 6: Two Worlds, One Problem

Chapter 6: Two Worlds, One Problem

It was an overcast day. Kailey was on her way to Nook's to help Sonic with work. She had already gone to Sonic's house to meet him there but he wasn't there so she figured he'd already gone to work.

It was two days after Tom Nook gave them the job of cleaning his storeroom, they had already pulled everything out of his storeroom so today they had to clean the room before putting it all back.

She walked up to Nookington's. The stuff from the storeroom was sitting outside where a white retriever was keeping a close eye on it.

"Hi, Walker," she waved to him before heading inside where she ran into Josh walking out.

"Good Mornin' sis, you got up late."

"Yeah I know."

"I was actually just coming to look for you. I already helped Sonic some, do you mind helping him the rest of the day?"

"Why? Where are you going to be?" she asked skeptical.

"Headin' to the city."

"Why?"

"To see if I can find anyone who might know Sonic."

"Josh…" she looked around and whispered "he fell from the sky, do you really think anyone in the city will know him?"

"I don't know, but I have to try. We promised we'd help him remember."

"OK just… be careful."

"I'm always careful!"

She rolled her eyes.

He smiled at her before walking off.

"Hey," Sonic greeted her as she walked down into the basement. "Where's Josh?"

"He had to go to the city," she picked up a broom and began dusting cobwebs off the ceiling. "To be honest I'm not sure I mind working without him."

"Why?"

"Well… we got in an argument right before you showed up and I guess we're still kind of mad at each other."

"What was the argument about? If you don't mind me asking."

"You can ask, I don't mind. I'm just mad because…" she stopped sweeping and turned to Sonic. "He treats me like a little kid! Constantly keeping his eye on me as if he doesn't trust me! Do you know how annoying it is?"

"He's your older brother, he's supposed to protect you."

She turned around and continued sweeping cobwebs. "He sure does a good job of it," she grumbled sarcastically.

"Why? Did you get hurt?" he asked worried.

"No… but he said we could all trust Redd, and you can see where that got us."

"Maybe he didn't know."

"Maybe…." Of course he didn't know. Back then no one did, but Kailey still blamed him.

"So I guess we're done here," he said looking around the room. "Time to put the furniture back in?"

"I Just have one more cobweb," she put her broom to the web but stopped short. "Oh no! I can't knock this one down, a spider lives in it. I can't tear up it's home…."

Sonic looked at it. He smirked "Think Nook will notice?"

She smiled. "Probably not," she set the broom down and followed Sonic outside.

* * *

><p>"What is taking him so long?" a girl asked annoyed. She punched the bars of the cage she was in and then shook her hand in the air. "Owww!" She sighed and leaned her head against the bars. All of a sudden she heard gunshots and the sound of something blowing up. She looked up at the door leading out of room and saw a robot go flying into the room. "Sonic?"<p>

Two figures stepped into the room.

"Tails! Knuckles! Am I glad to see you!"

"Amy?" Tails flew over to the cage she was in.

"I'm glad you guys came to save me, unlike 'someone'," she crossed her arms.

"You don't know where Sonic is either?" asked Knuckles.

"Either?"

"We haven't been able to find him," said Tails. "Cream said he came here to save you."

"What? He went missing trying to save me? And here I spent the last few days mad at him," she said sadly.

"It's OK, you didn't know," Tails reached over and pressed a button on a control panel opening the door to Amy's cage.

She stepped out of the cage.

"Great," Knuckles said sarcastically. "I left the Master Emerald unguarded to come here and we're no closer to finding Sonic."

Amy sighed.

"Calm down guys, we'll find him."

"WHAT?" they all heard someone say.

They turned to see Dr. Eggman standing in the room.

He pointed at Knuckles and Tails. "What are you doing here?"

Tails looked around for an exit but the only one was behind Eggman. "What are we going to do?"

Amy pulled out her hammer. "I got this!"

"You useless robots!" Eggman yelled. "You were supposed to take away her hammer!"

She ran at him and knocked him down.

Tails and Knuckles ran out the door.

"Hey wait for me!" she said before following them.

A robot with wheels instead of feet rolled into the room. "Dr., are you OK?" it asked in a high pitched robotic voice as it helped him to his feet.

Eggman pointed to the door. "Stop them!"

Red lights flashed and sirens echoed through the halls as the three ran.

"We got to get out of here!" Tails shouted above the sirens.

"I hope Sonic's in less trouble then we are," said Amy.

"Huh," Knuckles fake laughed. "I'll believe that when I see it."

* * *

><p>AN: Hey guys, thought I should telI you I won't be able to post as much next week. There will still be a few chapters, just not as many as there was this week. Hope you enjoyed the story so far!<p> 


	7. Chapter 7: A Plan

Chapter 7: A Plan

That night Josh was sitting on his couch watching TV when Kailey burst through the door.

"I think I know how we can help Sonic get his memory back. You see all we have to do is find something that would spark his memory, the hard part would be finding something that would do that."

Josh continued to stare at the TV screen, even when his sister started pacing back and forth in front of it.

"Maybe he'd remember a particular flower, or someone's name, or…I don't know. It'd help if we knew where he came from."

"You know, for someone who's mad and doesn't want to talk to me you talk to me a lot," he said still staring at the TV as if he wasn't listening.

She ignored him and kept talking. "Maybe he had a friend that smiled a certain way or something, but we wouldn't know that. Ugh! This is ridiculous. It's like we need him to remember so we know how to help him remember. It's crazy!"

"Yup."

"Are you even listening?"

"Mhm."

"Can you help?"

"I'll think of something during commercials."

"Uh!" She walked over to the door and put her hand on the doorknob.

"Show him around town and see if anything catches his eye. If he seems to look at something differently take him back to it."

"Thanks…."

"No problem."

She looked back at him and saw him still staring at the TV. _"I'm sorry for getting mad at you and saying I couldn't trust you,"_ she thought. She opened her mouth to apologize but walked out the door instead.

* * *

><p>Amy, Knuckles and Tails ran down the halls of Eggman's base.<p>

"Where's the exit?" asked Amy.

"This way!" Tails called.

They turned the corner to see the exit guarded by a small army of robots.

"We can take 'em," Knuckles said putting his fists up, ready to fight.

"It's no use," said Tails. "With the red alert on the door would be shut tight, we'd have no way to open it."

The robots fired at them and they all ducked.

"What do we do?" Amy asked Tails.

"We got to get to the control room. This way!" he took off the way they came with the other two behind him.

"So where's the control room?" asked Knuckles.

"Um, I don't really know."

"What? Then what are we doing? Running around in circles hoping we'll find it?"

"You got a better idea?" Amy asked him.

All of a sudden robots jumped out of the shadows and aimed their guns at them.

"Turn back!" Tails yelled.

They turned to run when they saw robots chasing after them on that side of the hallway too.

"We're surrounded!" said Knuckles.

One of the robots shot at them.

They dodged making the shot hit a robot on the other side.

Knuckles was about to charge at the robots when Amy grabbed his and Tails' arm and drug them through a doorway.

She tossed them into the room spun around and slid the metal door closed. She pressed some buttons on a keypad next to the door to lock it.

Outside they heard robots attacking the door trying to get at them. The door didn't budge or dent though, so they were safe…for now.

Amy breathed a sigh of relief.

"How did you know how to lock the door?" asked Knuckles.

"I've been trapped in this base a time or two."

"Where are we?" asked Tails.

Knuckles felt the wall and found a light switch.

The lights came on and revealed an odd machine.

"What is it?" asked Knuckles.

Tails stepped closer to it. "It looks like…a gate."

Knuckles cocked an eyespace. "A gate to what?"


	8. Chapter 8: Sonic is Nothing but Trouble

Chapter 8: Sonic is Nothing but Trouble

Josh and Kailey ran to Sonic's house the next morning.

Sonic had just started to walk away from his house when he saw them.

"Good morning!" Kailey said as she and her brother ran up to Sonic.

"There you are. I was starting to think you'd never show up."

"Sorry," she said out of breath. "I had to water my flowers, and I have a lot of flowers. And it's easy to lose track of time when-"

"Anyways…" said Josh. "We've decided to give you a tour of New Hope."

"Cool, does this mean I get out of work?"

"During break I mean."

He sighed. "OK, sounds like a plan."

"Alright! But first… race ya both there!"

They all took off running.

A breeze blew past Josh and Kailey.

Kailey stopped running. "Josh, stop."

He stopped and turned to her. "Why?"

"Where's Sonic?"

They looked around but Sonic was nowhere in sight.

* * *

><p>Amy stood with her back to the door staring at the machine.<p>

"It can't be a gate," said Knuckles. "It doesn't lead anywhere, it's just an empty archway."

Tails cocked his head to the side and put his hand under his chin. "Hmm," he noticed what looked like a metal box to his right. He walked over to it and saw two buttons on it, a big blue one, and a big red one. He pressed the blue one and there was a whirring sound as the machine turned on. A blurry white portal appeared in the empty gateway in the machine. He cautiously pressed the red one and the machine turned off.

"That's it," said Amy, stepping away from the door. "That's where Sonic is. Turn it back on."

"Wait," said Tails. "We can't just jump into a portal we don't know how to get back out."

"I bet Eggman would know," Knuckles mumbled.

"That's it!" said Tails. "We have to find Eggman."

Amy noticed that the sounds the robots were making trying to break through the door had stopped. "The robots left, we can go now," she unlocked the door and slid it open.

A giant red robot looked down at her.

She quickly shut the door and locked it again. "Never mind. We're going to have to find another way out," she walked away from the door.

"Why?" asked Tails.

The giant robot's hand punched through the door and reached for them.

"Does that answer your question?" Amy asked as they ran to the other side of the room.

Tails noticed a vent near the ceiling. He pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket and flew up to the vent and started unscrewing it.

"You keep a screwdriver with you?" asked Knuckles.

He finished unscrewing the vent and got in the ventilation shaft. He turned around to face the room and waved for the other two to follow him. "Come on!"

The robot reached for Amy. It almost got her when Knuckles ran up and punched it.

Tails flew down and helped her into the shaft.

The robot reached for Knuckles. He climbed on top of the gateway and waited for Tails and Amy to get into the shaft. When they were safe in the ventilation shaft he jumped off and glided to the shaft.

The robot felt around the room for them as they crawled away.

"That was close," Amy said when they were away from the room.

"It's not over yet," said Tails.

"I know," said Knuckles. "It's pretty bad when someone can get you in this much trouble when he's not even around."


	9. Chapter 9: Goons and Robots

Chapter 9: Goons and Robots

It was an hour later and Josh and Kailey still couldn't find Sonic. They looked all over town. Eventually they decided to go to Nookington's to see if Tom Nook had seen him, or at least to tell Nook that he was missing.

But when they got there Sonic was already there working.

"What took you so long?" he asked when he saw them.

"How did you get here?" Kailey asked, surprised.

"What do you mean? I ran."

She looked at him, confused.

"When did you run?" asked Josh.

"When we raced, don't you remember?"

"But…" she started, not sure she should finish the sentence.

The other two stared at her, waiting for her to finish.

"But… you disappeared."

Now Sonic was the one who looked confused. "No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

Josh all of a sudden realized what was going on. "Wait, didn't you say you ran?"

"How do you three expect to get any work done by standing around talking, hmm?" Nook asked them, annoyed.

Kailey rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, we'll get to work," said Josh. He turned to the other two. "I think I've figured out what's going on," he smiled at himself. "I'll explain while we work, then during break we'll show you around town."

"You won't have a break if you keep dilly dallying!" Nook said angrier then the first time.

"Sorry, geez," said Kailey getting annoyed at Nook.

The three walked out the door to sort the last of the stuff from Nook's store room.

Sonic turned to Josh and Kailey. "What's dilly dallying?"

They both shrugged.

* * *

><p>"Weren't you going to explain something?" Kailey asked her brother. She attempted to pull a sofa over with the rest of the cabin stuff.<p>

"Here, let me help you with that," he helped her pull the sofa to where it needed to go. When it was with the other cabin stuff Kailey and Sonic continued sorting while Josh just stood there talking.

"OK, Sonic said he ran but to us it looked like he disappeared."

"So what happened?" she asked, wanting him to just get to the point.

"He ran, really fast. Remember the breeze that blew past?"

"No one's that fast."

Josh leaned closer to her and whispered. "We also didn't think someone could fall from a hole in the sky."

She turned to Sonic. "So, you're super fast?"

"I guess."

"You guess?"

"I didn't really forget, I just…never thought about it."

"You didn't think we'd like to know?"

"To him it's such a common fact he didn't think he had to."

She looked at him.

"Or something like that, I wouldn't really know," he said really fast. He blushed slightly with an embarrassed grin on his face.

Kailey rolled her eyes at him.

Josh quickly looked over the stuff they were sorting. "Looks like we're done with the cabin series."

"I'll take it to the basement," Sonic picked up a cabin lamp and walked off.

"Hmm, doesn't it seem familiar though?" Josh asked after he left.

"What?"

"A guy comes from the sky, possibly even space and turns out to have abilities that the people in the world he lands on doesn't have."

She just looked at him.

"Like a certain comic book…?"

She thought for a minute then laughed. "Like Superman."

He smiled. "Exactly."

They were laughing when Sonic came back. "What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing," said Kailey.

* * *

><p>"Are we there yet?" Knuckles asked as they crawled through the ventilation shaft.<p>

"No," said Tails.

"Where exactly is 'there'?" asked Amy.

"I don't know, wherever Eggman is. We'll have to keep looking until we find him."

"I'm hungry," said Knuckles.

"Hungry?" asked Amy. "How can you think about food at a time like this?"

"What? I'm sure Sonic would be thinking about food while trying to save me."

Amy started to say something but Tails interrupted.

"Guys!" he whispered. "There's Eggman," he pointed out of the vent down to the hall below.

"Good job fixing my wall after Sonic smashed the Egg Guard into it," he told his robots.

"What did he say about Sonic?" Amy asked while trying to get closer to the vent so she could hear better.

"Shh!" said Tails.

"You're welcome," said one of the robots feeling proud of itself.

"But what I'd like to know is how come you lost Amy, Tails and Knuckles! Three animals don't just disappear!"

"Actually sir," the robot said pointing into the air. "With the chaos emeralds they can use chaos control, so three animals can in fact disappear."

Eggman's face turned red. "Just find them!"

The robots jumped, startled and ran off to do what they were told.

"Now!" said Knuckles. He squeezed past Amy and Tails punched the grate and jumped out into the hall.

The robots heard him and ran towards him.

He put one arm around Eggman and put his other fist to Eggman's head. "Don't come any closer."

The robots stopped.

"Um, Knuckles," said Tails who was now standing in the hall. He pointed at the other end of the hall where there were more robots running towards them.

"Darn…" Knuckles let go of Eggman and ran over to the robots and started smashing them.

Amy saw Eggman run past his robots. "He's getting away!" she pulled out her hammer and chased after him but the robots blocked her.

"I'll get him," said Tails. He flew over the robots and chased Eggman.

Eggman ran down the halls turning corners with Tails a ways behind him. He headed for a door.

"_Oh no! If he makes it to the door he'll lock it and I won't be able to get to him,"_ Tails thought. He spun his tails in a circle to help him go faster. He jumped in front of the door just as Eggman reached for it. "Stop…right there…Eggman," he said out of breath.

"Out of my way, pest!"

He shook his head no. He stood there for a few minutes trying to catch his breath. "I need you to answer my questions."

"And if I don't? What could you possibly do?"

"The question isn't what he could do, but what I could do," said a familiar voice.

They looked around trying to figure out where the voice came from.

A white bat descended from the ceiling landing next to Tails and Eggman.

"Rouge?" they asked in unison.

"Stop right there Egghead," she pulled something out of her pocket. "This is a detonator, all I have to do is press one button and this whole place is set to blow."

"Rouge, don't!" said Tails.

"So you better answer the kid's questions."

Eggman glared at her.

"You may or may not escape, and I know all of your robots wont."

"Fine! I'll tell you what you need to know."

"Not here," said Rouge. "Not where your robots can sneak up on us. In that room," she pointed to the door Tails was blocking.

Tails opened the door and Eggman walked inside.

"Thanks, Rouge," said Tails.

She smiled. "Don't mention it," she said before they followed Eggman into the room.

* * *

><p>Josh and Kailey walked around town showing Sonic all the sights. There wasn't much to see in New Hope but they pointed out all the buildings, and Josh pointed out the best trees for climbing and the best fishing spots while Kailey pointed out her favorite flowers.<p>

They walked up to Kailey's house.

"This is where I live," she said happily, her arms out wide.

"Wow," Sonic said looking at the huge flower garden next to her house.

"See what I mean by the biggest green thumb in town?" Josh whispered to Sonic.

"I have all my favorite flowers," she pointed to them in turn. "Tulips, Cosmos, Pansies, Carnations and Roses."

He looked down at a Rose by his feet. "Rose.…"

"What is it?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing."

"Oh," she said disappointed.

"How about we head to the gate?" said Josh. "It's really big."

They walked to the gate.

Kailey looked down at the ground disappointed that nothing had helped Sonic remember so far.

"We already told you what happened to the gate keepers," Josh said as they walked.

"STOP!" someone yelled.

They turned to see four animals dressed in black running toward the gate while holding some of Nooks stuff. Walker limped after them yelling at them to stop.

"We have to do something," said Kailey.

"I'd love to, but what are we going to do?" asked Josh.

"I don't know!"

"_I have to do something!"_ Sonic thought. He stepped in front of the gate.

Josh and Kailey were arguing and didn't notice what he was doing.

The thieves skidded to a stop in front of him. "Get out of our way!" said a pig standing in front of the other three.

"Give back that stuff and I will."

The pig snarled. "You're not from around here are ya'? No one gets in our way and gets away unhurt."

"Then I guess I'll be a first," he said getting ready to fight.

"Sonic, what are you doing?" asked Kailey.

"_What am I doing?"_

Suddenly one of the goons charged at him. He jumped to the side. Another swung at him and he ducked. One of them grabbed his shoulder and punched him in the face knocking him to the ground.

The pig laughed. "Going to be the first huh?"

Sonic got up and ran off.

The pig continued to laugh until he felt someone tap him on the back. He turned around and got punched in the face by Sonic.

The other three goons charged at him from three different directions. He leaped into the air making them bump into each other. He rolled into a ball in the air and hurled himself toward the thieves. He knocked one of them down and the item the thief was holding went flying.

Sonic caught it midair and landed on his feet.

One of the goons lunged at him. He stepped to the side and the thug landed on the one he had already knocked over.

He ran over to Josh and Kailey and handed them the stolen item. "Will you hold this for me?" He turned back to the goons and punched his fist into the palm of his hand.

The goons took off running for the gate.

Sonic ran toward the pig and tripped him.

The pig looked up at him.

He held out his hand. "Hand it over."

The pig handed Sonic the thing he stole and ran off.

Sonic smirked as he watched them go. He almost jumped when he heard clapping. He looked around and saw that there were more people standing around watching then just Josh and Kailey.

"That was awesome!" Kailey said running up to him.

"Yeah," he looked around again then looked back at her. "Uh, what just happened?"

"Don't you know?" she asked smiling even bigger. "You just saved the day!"


	10. Chapter 10: Painting the Town Redd

AN: Hey everyone, vacation's over so you can expect regular chapters again. Also you might have noticed that I changed the genre from general to action/adventure. It was supposed to be friendship/action the whole time but I couldn't find action. I recently found out that it comes with adventure. Not sure adventure really fits this story but oh well.

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: Painting the Town Redd<p>

The goons were sitting in Redd's shop. The pig was holding some ice to his eye when someone walked in.

"Ahem,"

The pig jumped, startled. "Redd, I didn't see you come in."

Redd glared at him. "Rasher, didn't you tell me it would easy to steal Nook's stuff?"

"Yeah," he said scared.

"And have you or have you not failed me before?"

"We haven't."

"Then what was different this time?" he yelled.

The goons jumped.

"I'm sorry boss," said Rasher. "But there was this new guy; he picked a fight with us."

"And you let him win?" he glared even harder.

"He's like lighting fast boss, we couldn't touch him. He beat us up pretty bad," he moved the ice off his eye to reveal a black eye. "So we ran back here."

"You're useless," he started to walk away. "You're all a bunch of useless chickens."

"I'm not a chicken," said one of the goons. "I'm a goose."

"Your name is Goose," said one of the goons. "You are a chicken."

"Oh… well that explains a lot!"

Redd turned back to them. "Can you at least tell me who he is?"

"We don't know him, boss," said Rasher.

"He's blue and kinda spiky," said another.

Rasher nodded. "He looks sort of like Mable, although not exactly."

"OK, did you get his name?"

"No, that girl said his name but I don't remember what she called him."

"What girl?"

"Hmm," he thought for a second.

Another goon spoke up. "I think it was Kailey, boss."

Redd grinned evilly. "Kailey, huh?"

"Yeah, you know her?"

"Her and her brother used to come to me for help when they first moved in to New Hope. I guess it's time to visit an old friend, then we'll teach that new guy who's boss. Then we'll paint the town red!" he started laughing evilly and all the goons joined in.

"I'll go get the paint brushes," said Goose before walking out of the room.

Redd smacked his forehead.

* * *

><p>Josh and Kailey sat at either side of Sonic as they leaned against a tree and licked on ice cream cones.<p>

"Who knew Sable could make ice cream?" asked Kailey.

"She said it was her Grandma's recipe," said Josh.

"It's really good."

A shadow fell on the three of them and they looked up to see Nook.

"Oh hi, Nook," said Josh. "Sable made us some ice cream to thank Sonic for stopping those thieves the other day. She made me and Kailey some too and we didn't even do anything."

"Mhm," he said, obviously not impressed. He looked at Sonic. "Shouldn't you be working?"

"You better be nice to him," said Kailey. "He saved your stuff from getting stolen."

Nook ignored her.

"I finished the store room," said Sonic. "What else do you want?"

"Yes you did, but you have to do more work if you want to stay in that house. I want you to write an advertisement for my shop on the message board."

"What do you need an ad for?" asked Josh. "You're the only shop in town besides the Able Sisters."

"Just write it."

"Fine," said Sonic. "Can I at least finish my ice cream first?"

"Just get it done in the next few hours," he started to walk away. "Oh, and Kailey, I _am_ being nice to him, I'm letting him stay in the house aren't I?"

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say…Tom Crooks," she whispered the last part.

Josh and Sonic started snickering.

He looked back at them. "What's so funny?"

She smiled innocently. "Nothing."

They waited until Nook walked away.

"This is stupid," said Josh.

"No," she smiled with a mischievous glint in her eye. "This is the fun part."

* * *

><p>AN: Don't get mad if I made one of your favorites a goon. Rasher's actually one of my favorites.<p> 


	11. Chapter 11: Egghead

Chapter 11: Egghead

"I designed the machine to be a portal to other worlds," Eggman explained. He seemed so engrossed in talking about his machine that he seemed to forget that Rouge practically captured him in his own base and had made him talk.

"I didn't even know that was possible," Tails said amazed.

He grinned.

Rouge sat in a nearby chair, bored. "So where does it take you?"

His smile faded. "I don't know."

"How can you not know? It's your machine," she said.

"I never went in it."

"How did you know that it worked then?"

"I sent a robot through it."

"So you made the portal to trap Sonic in," said Tails, "but you had to plan for the possibility that you'd end up trapped in it instead right? I mean there has to be _some way_ back out, right?"

"Well…there is one way, but I'll never tell you what it is!"

Rouge cocked an eyespace. "Oh yeah?"

He remembered that she had a detonator. He sighed and held up his arm. "If you press the button on this armband you'll return to this world."

Rouge looked at it. "You tested it?"

"It's how I got my robot back out."

"Can you bring something back with you?" Tails asked.

"I think, but I didn't test it."

"Hmm, it's worth a try," he quickly unfastened it from Eggman's arm.

"Hey! Give that back!"

"It might be our only chance to save Sonic," he backed away.

Eggman stood up. "Robots!"

Rouge grabbed Tails' arm and ran out the door and down the hall in the direction Tails came from.

Robots ran into the room just as they were out of sight.

Rouge was watching behind them. She looked ahead at where they were going. "I'm glad that worked; I would've hated to try to come up with a plan B that fast."

"I thought you had one. Wait…that's not a detonator is it?"

"No," she pulled it out of her pocket and held it out for him to see. "It's my compact mirror."

They skidded to a stop to keep from running into Amy and Knuckles.

"Tails! There you are!" said Amy.

"Rouge?" Knuckles turned to Tails. "What is she doing here?"

She rolled her eyes. "Geesh, I'm glad to see you too."

"I don't know," said Tails. "But she helped make Eggman talk. I know how to save Sonic now!"

Amy beamed. "Really?"

"Guys, we've got company," said Rouge. The robots Eggman called had now caught up and were just down the hall.

"Oh no! We have to get back to the portal, fast!" said Tails.

They all took off running.

"Do we have to work with her?" Knuckles asked.

"Right now you have no choice," said Rouge.

"I'm not sure how to get back to that room," said Tails. "We left it through an air vent."

"Would you be able to find your way through the vent?" Rouge asked him.

"Maybe."

"Then lead the way!"

They found the vent quickly. Rouge flew up into it while Tails helped Amy up.

Knuckles looked back at the robots a ways behind them. "Do we ever get a break?"

"You have to ask?" Rouge smirked.

He scowled before following them.

* * *

><p>Sonic, Josh and Kailey snickered as they reread the ad they wrote for Nook's shop.<p>

"What if Nook read's it?" asked Josh. "He'll know who wrote it."

"It'll be fine," said Kailey. "He probably won't even read it," she handed the paper to Josh and he walked off to put it on the board. "Um, Sonic?"

He looked at her. "Yeah?"

"If you wanted to apologize to someone but couldn't because you couldn't bring yourself to admit you were wrong, how would you do it?"

He thought for a second. "I don't know."

"Of course not," she said sadly.

"But not apologizing would probably be worse than admitting you were wrong."

"Yeah…probably."

Josh walked back over to them. "Alright it's up, I still don't get why I had to post it though." He looked at his sister suspiciously. "What were you talking about?"

"Do you always think I'm up to something?"

They started walking, not really going anywhere specific.

"Aren't you?" Josh asked her.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever, knucklehead."

A picture flashed before Sonic's eyes, of a red guy that looked sort of like him. But was he a friend or a foe?

"Oh I'm the knucklehead?"

"Well aren't you?" She noticed the sun starting to set. "I better go; Lucy invited me to eat supper at her house."

"OK, make sure you wake up early for Morning Aerobics."

"Is tomorrow Monday?"

He nodded.

"I'll make sure to be there. I'm going to beat you at the three legged race!"

He smirked. "We'll see."

She waved goodbye and ran off.

"So what are we going to do?" he turned to Sonic who just shrugged.

"Hmm, it's getting late, do you know what that means?" he smiled. "Prime time."

"Which is?"

"Television. What do you say, up for some TV and pizza?"

"Sounds good!"

"Alright!"


	12. Chapter 12: Ready, Set, Go!

Chapter 12: Ready…Set…Go!

"What's a three legged race?" Sonic asked as he stretched.

It was the day of the Morning Aerobics. All the residents of New Hope had gathered at an area where there were little trees in the lower half of the town. They were all warming up before the games started.

"You tie your foot to someone else's and you have to run to the goal as a team," Kailey explained.

"Mhm, why?"

"For fun!"

"_Sounds like it could be fun," _he thought. "So who am I going to team up with?"

"Whoever you want."

"You can team up with me," said Josh. "Since Walker got hurt some of the teams changed around so I don't have a team mate anymore."

"OK."

"You don't have to though."

"Nah I'll race with ya." He looked over at Walker who was holding crutches as he directed some of the animals. "I hope he's OK."

"So do I," said Kailey. "But he might have been hurt even more if you hadn't stepped in."

"What do you mean?"

"He was chasing those goons, thanks to you he didn't have to. He could've hurt his leg even more if he kept running, or-"

"Here we go," said Josh.

"What?" Sonic asked.

"It's just that if there's something my sister likes as much as taking care of her flowers it's talking."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, and rolling her eyes."

"Uh!" she shook her fist at him.

Sonic and Josh laughed at her.

He was laughing at her but Sonic knew she was right. He had saved them, but he wasn't even sure why he had beaten those guys up. He just started fighting them without really thinking about it, just like he didn't think about the fact that he was fast. Josh said that he might not have thought about it because it was normal to him, if that was true was beating up goons also normal? _"Just who am I anyway?"_

His thoughts were interrupted by Walker talking into a megaphone. "Everyone, find your team mate and head to the starting line."

Lucy walked up with some string. "Ready to beat these guys?"

"You know it!"

"Well aren't you two confident?" Josh asked with a smirk. "Sorry to disappoint you but we'll be the one's winning!"

"We'll see!" Kailey said smirking back.

They all walked over to where there was a piece of long red tape taped onto the ground as their starting line. Across the field a ribbon was tied from one tree to another as their finish line.

"When the race starts we're going to have to run in time with each other, OK?" Josh told Sonic.

"OK."

Portia was yelling at a blue cat that he better not make her lose. While everyone else tried to ignore Portia while getting ready to race.

Walker walked over to the starting line. "On your mark…get set…go!"

Everyone took off.

The cat tripped almost as soon as the race began.

Kailey and Lucy laughed as they ran.

Wind blew past Sonic as he ran ahead of everyone else. Within seconds he had crossed the finish line. "We won!" he looked around noticing that Josh was gone. "Josh?" he then saw him lying on the ground.

"Good job," he said sitting up. "But next time can you not drag me?"

Sonic smiled and helped him up.

Kailey and Lucy panted as they got to the finish line next.

"H-how did you do that?" Lucy asked Sonic.

"I ran."

Kailey laughed. "OK, you guys won this time, but we're going to win tug of war!"

Josh just waved her off.

The girls walked off and they heard Lucy ask "How are we going to beat them at tug of war?"

"Shh!" Kailey told her.

"She's so competitive," said Josh. "I don't know where she gets it from."

Sonic looked at him. "You don't?"

Josh laughed.

It was boys against girls at the tug of war. There were a few more boys in New Hope then girls but they decided to do it that way anyways.

"Ready…go!" said Walker.

They all pulled on the rope.

"So we're trying to pull them into the dirt?" asked Sonic.

"Pretty much," said Josh.

Kailey nearly slid but she managed to catch herself.

Sonic started to run backwards and kicked a bunch of dirt onto Josh.

"Hey, watch it."

"Sorry," he stopped.

The boys nearly won a couple of times but the girls pulled even harder on the rope both times.

"Ow, I'm going to have horrible rope burns," said Portia who was standing behind the rest of the girls. "Ow!" she said again. She dropped the rope and inspected her paws.

Almost instantly the girls tumbled into the dirt on top of each other.

Kailey crawled out from under the pile and stood up to glare at Portia. "What did you do that for?"

She looked up at her. "What?"

She started to walk towards her but the other girls got in front of her and tried to calm her down.

The guys all high fived each other.

"You did a great job, Moe," Josh said, patting him on the back.

"Thanks…" he said shyly.

Portia gaped. "But you made me lose!"

"I didn't mean to!"

"Why do you do good on their team and bad on mine?"

Time for lunch!" Walker announced.

A sweet looking pink dog walked over to help Walker get the picnic baskets.

Moe followed them.

"Hey! You get back here!" Portia yelled before chasing after him.

Kailey rolled her eyes at her.

The others started to follow them too.

Sonic and Josh walked up to Kailey.

"First one there gets first pick of the food?" asked Sonic.

"I know better than to take you up on that," she said before walking on ahead.

"Oh well," he said before taking off anyways. When he got to the picnic table he picked up a hot dog and started spooning chili over it.

"What are you doing?" Kailey asked him.

He looked down at the hot dog. "I… don't know…." _"So not only do I run really fast and beat up badguys without thinking about it, I also dump chili on hot dogs without thinking about it? Who the heck am I?"_


	13. Chapter 13: To Leave or Not to Leave

Chapter 13: To Leave or Not to Leave?

Sonic looked around, Josh and Kailey were nowhere in sight. _"I don't want to wake them," _he thought. _"And they don't have to help me; maybe I'll just go ahead to Nook's without them."_

He stopped on his way to read the bulletin board.

The winner of the three legged race is Josh and Sonic!

It went on to say the winners of the other events too.

He smiled, then he remembered what Kailey had said the other day at the Morning Aerobics, that he had saved them from Redd's goons. The thieves hadn't showed up since the day he beat them up, did New Hope still need him? Could he go figure out who he is now?

"Everything OK?"

He realized Mable was now standing next to him.

"You have this expression on your face, like you're mad or serious, or something."

"I'm fine, just thinking."

"About? Sorry probably none of my business, I should probably get back to the shop," she started to walk away.

"Hey, Mable."

She stopped. "Yeah?"

"Have you ever seen a red guy that looks sort of like me?"

She walked back over to him. "No, why?"

"I kind of remembered something."

"Kind of?"

"Yeah, I saw him but I don't remember his name."

"Hmm, what made you remember?"

He thought for a second. "I don't remember."

"Then I can't really help you."

"He was standing in front of a giant diamond like thing."

"Hm, I've never seen a giant diamond before, or any diamonds for that matter. The only person I know that might have is… no, never mind you wouldn't what to talk to him."

"Who?"

"I said never mind," she started acting distressed.

"OK, it's OK," he said trying to calm her down.

"OK… so… how are you going to find this guy?"

"I don't know," he smirked. "I guess I'll run where the wind takes me and find out from there."

She gave him a confused look. "Alright, if that's the way you like to do things. I'll tell Nook you're leaving."

"I can do that."

"Nah, I know him better then you do, he'll probably freak out at losing his worker."

"OK, thanks. Oh and I'm going to need a new shirt," he pointed his thumb at the uniform he was still wearing.

"Hmm, Nook never paid you did he?"

"No."

"I'll talk to Sable and we'll figure something out."

"OK."

She turned and ran toward the shops.

"Thanks!"

She waved. "No problem."

He watched her disappear behind Town Hall. _"Now to find Josh and Kailey."_ He turned and saw Kailey already standing there.

"You're… leaving?" she asked sadly.

"Yeah…" maybe this wasn't going to be easy as he thought it would be.

"Why?"

"I have to, I told you that when I first met you."

Of course she knew he had to leave, but she wished he didn't have to leave so soon. "But, we need you!" her voice cracked.

"No you don't, Redd's goons aren't coming back, and even if they do," he smiled, "I'm sure you could beat them up."

She didn't say anything.

"Kailey? I have to leave sooner or later."

"Fine, run away," she walked off, mad.

"Kailey-!"

She ran off before he could say anything else.

He sighed. "That didn't go so good," he ran off to find Josh.

* * *

><p>He eventually found Josh at Sonic's house, waiting for him.<p>

"So you're leaving?" Josh asked when Sonic walked through the door.

"Wow, news around here travels about as fast as I do."

"Do you have to leave now?"

"Why?"

"It's about my sister, she doesn't trust people very well, but she trusts you," he looked down at the floor. "I mean, I think she trusts you more then she trusts me, not that I ever gave her much of a reason to."

"She trusts you, Josh, she just won't admit it."

"Yeah," he said like he didn't believe him. "Can't you stay a little longer? For her?"

He thought that Mable had probably told Nook that he was leaving by now, and he really needed to know who he was. "I can't, I'm sorry."

Josh sighed. "Look, I know you need to leave but can't you wait? At least let her get use to the idea? She needs you."

He remembered the way she had acted earlier. "She was pretty mad."

"She's not really mad at you, well she might be but don't sweat it. See, with Kailey whenever she gets upset it quickly turns to anger."

"Oh, that explains a lot," he also thought it sounded familiar but he couldn't think of who.

He laughed. "Yeah. So, will you stay? For now?"

"Alright, for now."

Suddenly Lucy busted through the door, she looked frantic. "Guys!"

"What is it?" they asked.

"Kailey's been kidnapped!"

"What?" they asked in unison.

"She's been kidnapped by Crazy Redd!"

"What happened?" Josh asked her.

"Redd showed up asking her where Sonic is, she refused to tell him anything and he kidnapped her!"

Sonic's eyes widened. "Oh no…" Now he definitely couldn't leave, cause now Kailey had been kidnapped because of him.


	14. Chapter 14: Into the Portal

Chapter 14: Into the Portal

Tails looked around the room. "The coast is clear."

They all hopped down from the ventilation shaft.

Tails put on the armband he took from Eggman while Rouge ran over to the control panel.

He looked at the others. "Wait… one of us has to stay here."

"Why?" asked Amy.

"Eggman could destroy the gateway, or set a trap for us."

"I'm going to save Sonic!" said Amy.

"I'm not staying either," said Knuckles.

"I guess I could.…"

"I'll stay," Rouge said. "If they find you here they'll try to capture or kill you, I can convince the egghead I'm on his side."

"I don't approve of lying," said Tails. "But you are good at it."

"Can we trust her?" Knuckles asked Tails.

"I think we can."

She turned back to the control panel. "Which button?"

"The shiny blue one."

She pressed the button and the blurry white portal appeared in the gateway.

"Don't turn the machine off," Tails told her. "I think the armband uses it to come back."

"Got it," she turned her back to the panel. "Good luck."

Amy and Knuckles stepped into the portal.

Tails nodded at Rouge and jumped into the portal.

They quickly found out why the portal was white, because it was a picture of where the portal takes you, in this case into the clouds….

Tails spun his tails to keep from falling. He flew over to Amy to catch her.

"Thanks."

"Where's Knuckles?"

"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" Knuckles yelled as he fell through the sky, the ground getting closer and closer. He shut his eyes and felt himself stop falling minutes before hitting the ground. He looked up and saw Tails holding his foot. "You could have caught me sooner."

"He could have caught you later," said Amy.

He set them both down and they looked around.

"Where are we?" asked Amy.

"I don't know," said Tails. "Eggman said the portal leads to another world."

"So this is another world?" asked Knuckles. "Looks a lot like our world."

"Aha!"

They looked behind them and saw a white cat holding some rope.

"I knew there were more of you! You've come to invade us haven't you?"

"What is that?" Knuckles asked.

"I believe that's a local," said Tails.

"Don't give me that bewildered look. I saw it, you came from the sky, you're aliens! And now I know Sonic's an alien too."

"Aliens? We're not aliens!" said Knuckles.

Amy ignored the alien comment. "You know where Sonic is?"

"Yeah, but I'm not going to tell you aliens."

"Will you stop with the alien nonsense already?" Knuckles yelled. "Just tell us where Sonic is!"

"I said that I'm not going to tell you," she cautiously stepped closer to them and held up the rope. "Now… be good little aliens, I don't want anyone to get hurt."

"Wait what are you going to do with that?" asked Tails backing away.

"I'm going to tie you up and drag you back to town, and then I, Mitzi, will be a hero of New Hope!"

She continued to step closer to them as they slowly backed away.

* * *

><p>"Help!" Mitzi yelled, now tied to a tree. "I've been captured!"<p>

"We wouldn't have had to if you didn't try to tie us up first," Knuckles grumbled.

"We just need to know where our friend is," said Tails.

"I'll never talk!"

"Oh you're gonna talk," said Knuckles. He held up his fist. "You're gonna talk or I'll-"

"Knuckles!" Amy crossed her arms and tapped her foot.

He sighed. "Fine," he walked away from Mitzi and let Amy step up.

"Sorry about that, he has anger problems. Anyways, I'm Amy. We're not bad guys, we're actually here because of a bad guy and-"

"Hmmph, like I'm going to listen to anything you ugly aliens say."

"Ugly? Why you!" she pulled her hammer out of seemingly nowhere and was about to swing it at Mitzi when Tails grabbed her arm.

"Amy!"

"Sorry…."

Knuckles grumbled something the others couldn't hear.

"How can we prove to you that we're not evil?" Tails asked Mitzi.

She didn't answer.

"This is going to take all day!" said Knuckles. "There's only one way we're going to get her to talk," he held his fist up to her face.

She gulped when she saw the spikes on his fist.

He gritted his teeth. "You better start talking."

She started sweating.

He moved his fist slightly closer.

"OK, OK, I'll talk…" she said sadly.

He moved his fist away from her face.

"He's in a town called New Hope, that way," she nodded in the direction of the town. "But he won't be able to help you, he doesn't remember anything."

"What?" said Amy.

"Oh no!" said Tails.

"Don't we get this enough from Shadow?" asked Knuckles.

"Yup, he can't even remember his full name, he says his name's "Sonic the.""

"Now that's just sad," said Knuckles.

"Of course he'll be able to remember _me_ though… right?" Amy asked sounding confident until she got to the last part.

"Are you crazy?" Knuckles asked her. "If he remembers one of us it would be Tails."

"We should go find him," said Tails.

"Definitely," said Amy.

"Yeah let's go," Knuckles agreed.

They walked off.

"Wait!" Mitzi yelled at them. "You can't leave me here!"

"Should we untie her?" asked Tails.

"No," said Knuckles. "If we do she'll attack us again."

"Good point," he said. "You weren't really going to punch her were you?"

Knuckles walked on ahead.

"…were you?" he ran after him.


	15. Chapter 15: At the Speed of Sound

Chapter 15: At the Speed of Sound

"Stay here," Sonic told Josh as he walked across the room to the door.

"No, she's my sister I'm going to help save her. Besides you don't even know where Redd's shop is."

"Fine, come on."

They ran out the door and to the gate with Lucy following them. But when they got to the gate someone was waiting for them. They skidded to a stop when they saw six goons standing in their way.

"There's more of you then there was last time," said Sonic.

"Have I ever told you that the boss pays good?" asked Rasher. "There's even more of us but the rest are with him."

"The coward didn't want to face me himself?"

Josh started snickering.

Rasher scowled. "He was going to until your friend got in the way."

He narrowed his eyes, now serious. "Where is she?"

"She's also with the boss. Don't worry she'll be safe, as long as you agree to a deal."

"How's this for a deal? I beat you up and you run home." He ran toward him.

He stepped to the side and tripped Sonic sending him flying face first into the pavement in front of the gate.

Sonic started to get up when another goon ran over and kicked him.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" said Josh.

The thugs looked at him. Two of them stepped towards him and he gulped.

"You want to mess with us?" one of them asked. "You're just as stupid as your sister."

He glared and punched the goon in the face.

The other one came from behind Josh and put his arm around his neck.

Lucy gasped and without thinking yelled "Stop!"

One of them walked towards her.

She slowly backed away and backed into a tree.

"Let them go," Sonic said as he slowly stood up. "I'm the one you want."

"Actually you're not," said Rasher. "What we want is for you to leave New Hope."

"I can't leave when they're in danger."

"What? You think you're some kind of hero? The only way to save them _is_ to leave."

"The only one leaving this town is you!"

"We'll see about that," he snapped and a goon punched Sonic hard in the stomach. Another one hit him over the head and he fell back down. They began kicking him.

"Sonic!" yelled Josh.

Lucy tried to run but one of the thieves grabbed her arm. "Help!"

Their words echoed in his mind and a picture flashed before Sonic's eyes again, this time of a girl, she called his name as she was being held by a robot, then the picture changed to bunch of people screaming for help as a giant wave came towards the city. It changed again to some townspeople surrounded by evil knights then to some people surrounded by robots. The scene changed again and again but something was always the same, people were in trouble, calling for help, but he saved them, all of them, he _was_ a hero and now he remembered it.

Rasher snapped again and the goons stepped away from Sonic.

He lied on the ground.

Josh and Lucy watched him, worried.

He slowly stood up, hurt from the bruises. "I'm Sonic… Sonic the Hedgehog; and I'll tell you one more time," he glared at Rasher. "Let them go."

He laughed. "Or what?"

Sonic ran at the pig as fast as he could and threw his fist at his face knocking him into the dirt.

He looked up at him through two black eyes.

Sonic homing attacked the two goons after Josh, when he landed he spin dashed the one holding Lucy captive. He then ran to stand in between the two that beat him up.

One punched at him, he ducked making him punch the other goon. On the ground he swung his leg and tripped them both. One of the goons jumped back up and threw another punch at Sonic. He jumped over the punch and homing attacked him, knocking the goon back down. He then quickly turned and kicked the other one just as he was getting up.

The other three goons ran at him. He jumped and they ran into each other. He landed on top of two of them, knocking them down. The third one punched him knocking him back a step. He ran behind him and pushed him with his foot onto the ever growing pile of goons.

He then ran to Rasher. He stopped right in front of him and smirked.

Rasher got up and ran for the gate. "Run!"

The other five goons slowly got up and ran after him.

Sonic laughed. "What? You're just going to leave like that? You're all talk."

"Are you alright?" Josh asked, running up to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You're bruised!" said Lucy.

"It's nothing."

"So you remember now?" asked Josh.

"Yeah, but now we got to go save Kailey."

"Right, but how are we going to get there?" he remembered the three legged race. "Think you can run us to the city?"

Sonic smirked. "At the speed of sound!"

"Great! Wait you don't literally mean-"

Josh didn't get to finish his sentence, because in an instant they were both off and running toward the city.

* * *

><p>Crazy Redd walked through the alleys of the city with three goons walking behind him. Two of them held Kailey's arms as they made her walk behind Redd.<p>

She glared at them. "Sonic will find you."

"Good, that's the plan," said Redd.

"What?"

"If he makes a deal I'll let you go, if not… I'll find something to do with you. They might still have slavery in some remote parts of the world."

She gaped. "You're going to sell me?"

He smirked an evil looking smirk. "Sweetie, money is everything."

She glared again. "Money is _not_ everything. The people of New Hope don't have much money but we manage. We're strong, we don't up and quit when people like you show up."

"Some might also call that being stubborn. Do you ever shut up?"

"Do you?" she replied.

They got to the end of the alley where there was a van waiting.

"Leave her here," said Redd.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"People will start suspecting that something's up if they see you."

"You mean see you kidnapping me?"

"You just need to stay here for the time being."

She struggled to get away from the goons. "No."

"Trust me, it will be better for you if you cooperate."

"I will not cooperate, I'm not doing anything you say!" she yelled loud enough for someone outside the alley to hear.

The third goon picked up something metal and hit her in the head from behind and knocked her out.

"Put her in the van," said Redd. "Tie her up and gag her in case she wakes up. There's some rope in the van. One of you come with me," he said walking off.


	16. Chapter 16: The Search for Sonic

Chapter 16: The Search for Sonic

"Welcome to New Hope!" Tails read off a sign. "I wonder why they call it New Hope."

"I don't know," said Knuckles. "Let's just go in."

They walked through the gate and began looking around.

"Sonic!" Amy yelled. "Where are you?"

"Sonic!" Tails called. "Where could he be?"

"Maybe we should ask that local over there," Amy said pointing to a blue cat with sleepy eyes.

"Just as long as it's not as crazy as the last one we talked to," Knuckles grumbled.

"Excuse me," Tails said walking up to the cat. "Do you know someone named Sonic?"

"Sure, he's that hedgehog that showed up during that wind storm. He's pretty cool. Are you friends of Sonic?"

"Yeah. Do you know where we can find him?"

"I wouldn't know, sorry. He might be at Nookington's since he works there; I can help you look for him."

"Thanks!"

The cat nodded and walked off.

Tails turned to Amy and Knuckles.

"So what do we do?" asked Amy.

"I guess we keep looking," said Tails.

They continued walking and ended up at a building with a message board in front of it.

"I might be able to see him from the top of that cliff," said Knuckles. He glided to the cliff and began to climb it.

Tails glanced at the message board when one of the messages caught his eye. "Hey Amy, look at this." He read the message out loud. "Come shop at Nookington's where we have the worst prices in town and where Tom Crooks enslaves his workers! Located just north of the Town Hall, (which is where you're standing.) So come see us! (And rescue us.)"

"Oh no!" said Amy. "That's horrible!"

Tails cocked his head to the side. "That's an odd thing to say about yourself."

Knuckles glided down from the cliff. "What's going on?"

They showed him the message.

"Tom might not have been the one that wrote it," said Amy. "What if it's a call for help?"

"Look who wrote it," Knuckles said pointing the spikes on his fist at the corner of the message. "Posted by Josh, Kailey…" they didn't recognize those names but they definitely recognized the last one. "And…."

"Sonic!" they all said in unison.

"That is where that cat said he works," said Tails.

"He's calling for help," said Amy. "We have to save him!"

Knuckles reread the message. "Which way's north?"

"That way!" Tails said pointing past the Town Hall.

"How do you know?"

"Cause I can see Nookington's from here."

"Don't worry Sonic, we're coming to save you!" said Amy.

They took off toward Nookington's.

* * *

><p>Nook was sitting behind the counter counting his money when Tails, Knuckles and Amy ran in.<p>

"Ah hello, I haven't seen you around. Are you wanting to buy a house or are you just passing through?"

Knuckles walked up to the counter. "You must be Tom Crooks."

"Excuse me?"

"We know what you've been doing," Amy said as she walked over to stand behind Knuckles.

"Mhm… what have I been doing exactly?"

"You've enslaved your workers!" she said.

"What? Where did you hear that?"

"On the message board."

He narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "Did you now? So is that what it says."

"Where's Sonic?" Knuckles asked shaking his fist at him.

"How would I know? He doesn't work here anymore, Mable said he left. Figures he'd run off like that, now my only workers are my nephews."

"You enslaved your nephews?" asked Amy.

"Would Mable know where he went?" asked Tails.

"I don't know!"

"I know where he is," they heard someone behind them say.

A white pig was standing in the doorway.

"Where?" asked Amy. "Is he OK?"

"He went to the city to save my friend. My name's Lucy by the way."

"What happened to your friend?" asked Tails.

"She's been kidnapped, by a guy named Crazy Redd."

"That cheat!" yelled Nook.

They all glanced at him.

"Can you take us to the city?" asked Tails.

"Wait, you want _me_ to take you there?" she asked nervously.

"We don't know where it is. And we have to help our friend and your friend too."

She gulped. _"It's what Kailey would do…" _she thought. "OK," she said, still nervous.

"Great, let's go!"

They ran out the door.

"Wait!" Nook called after them. "You can buy some medicine incase they're hurt!" He saw that they already ran off. "Oh well."


	17. Chapter 17: To the City

Chapter 17: To the City

Redd walked into his shop followed by one of his goons.

Goose was there watching the shop. "Hey boss. Before Rasher left he said he was going to clean Sonic's clock, can you believe that? When you sent him to beat him up!"

"Are you sure it's good idea, leading that hedgehog here?" The goon asked Redd.

"Don't worry, I have everything under control. All we have to do now is wait."

Suddenly a burst of wind blew through the door as Sonic ran in dragging Josh.

"That was fast," said Redd. "You really are as fast as they say, aren't you?"

"Where is she?" Sonic asked, glaring at him.

"Not one for conversion then? Don't worry I'll let her go, that is, if you agree to a deal," he smirked.

"Your goons already told me about the deal, and the answer's no."

"Are you sure you want to do that? I promise if you leave no harm will come to the people of New Hope, or… at least not much."

Sonic crossed his arms. "The answer's no. And actually I have a deal for you."

He raised both eyespaces. "Really?"

"Let Kailey go, then leave New Hope and never come back."

"What's in it for me?"

"I won't have to beat you and all your goons up."

Redd sighed. "You think I'm scared of you? I'm the one everyone's scared of. Even some of the cops are scared of me. I own this town, or at least I will," his smirk grew even bigger. "I already own one town."

"Just tell us where Kailey is!" Josh yelled at him.

"Of course, but first I want to make one final offer," he turned back to Sonic. "You really are as fast as they say; I bet no one would ever see you coming."

He just looked at him confused.

"We could work together; just imagine how much money we could make with you getting the items and me selling them!"

"No thanks. I don't work with bad guys."

"Very well. Take them out back."

"Yes boss," the goons stepped toward them.

Sonic shook his head. "Everywhere I go it's always the same."

"What do you mean?" Josh asked, backing away from the goons.

"Nothin', it's just that it seems I always end up running into some eggheads that need to learn some manners." With that he spin dashed the two goons. When they got up off the ground he homing attacked them. He landed on his feet and balled his hand into a fist. "Want some more?"

One of the goons picked up a golf club and swung it and hit him with it.

"Not those!" said Redd. "Those golf clubs are worth good money!"

He started to swing the golf club again when Goose jumped in the way trying to punch Sonic and accidently got hit himself.

"Hey!" he yelled.

The other goon started to swing the golf club again when they all heard Josh yell "Stop!"

They all turned and saw him holding one of Redd's paintings.

"Tell me where my sister is or I'll break it."

"Phh, that's a fake anyway," said Redd.

"OK then," he raised it above his head.

"Wait! We took her outside the city in a truck. That way," he pointed sadly at having lost.

Josh lowered the painting then dropped it making a cloud of dust. He and Sonic stepped toward the door when the goons got in their way.

"Let them go," Redd said sadly.

They reluctantly got out of their way and Sonic and Josh left.

Goose looked at Redd "Why'd you tell them where she is?"

"I didn't you idiot!" he said now not sounding the least bit sad. "Pack up everything."

"Why, boss?"

"Because if they come back we don't want to be here. We'll have to move shop temporarily."

"Where?"

"I don't know! I'll figure it out," he said getting annoyed at the chicken. "Go find that dog and that bull whatever their names are, the ones I left with the van. Tell them to bring to van over."

He nodded and ran off.

"Which direction did he say?" Sonic asked right after they walked out the door.

"That way," Josh pointed.

They then saw the goons that Sonic had beat up in New Hope earlier walking up.

The goons all stopped when they saw them. Rasher dove behind a dumpster. The rest of them got ready to fight but they looked a little scared.

Josh started to step forward when Sonic stopped him.

"We don't have time to deal with them. We'll beat them up later," he turned to the goons. "And you can count on that!"

They jumped.

Sonic laughed before grabbing Josh's arm and running off.

* * *

><p>"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Knuckles asked Lucy as she led them through the city.<p>

"Of course she does!" said Amy.

"It just seems to be taking a while," he grumbled.

"I'm sorry I'm not as fast as your friend," said Lucy.

Knuckles noticed something that caught his eye in a window they walked past. "What is _that_?"

"Looks like a robot," said Tails.

Amy stopped to see what they were looking at. "Could Eggman have sent it though the portal?"

"It doesn't look like one of Eggman's robots," said Tails.

"Oh no!" said Amy. "It almost hit someone! We have to stop it!"

"No!" said Lucy. "It's just a gyroid, leave it alone!"

"A what?" Knuckles asked.

"It's sort of like a robot, it's perfectly harmless."

"But it almost hit someone," said Amy.

"No, it moves in a circular motion and swings it arms, someone just got to close and it looked like it was going to hit them."

"Oh."

Lucy stepped back see the sign on the front of the building. "But if this is the Auction House then we're getting close to Redd's," she looked nervous.

They all began walking again.

"What's the deal with this Crazy Redd guy anyway?" asked Knuckles.

"He runs a black market," Lucy explained. "He pays people to steal for him, since no one wants to become his next target everyone stays out of his way."

"Someone has to stop him," said Amy.

"Yeah… I just don't know who. I wish that Josh had been right."

"Who's Josh?" asked Amy.

"Right about what?" asked Tails.

"He's Kailey's older brother, he said we could trust Redd when the rest of us weren't sure we could. We all thought he was trying to help us, turns out he was just casing us," she said sadly. She stopped in her tracks and stared at a small building. "We're here," she gulped.

They walked up to the door. Lucy started to knock then stopped. "Uh, maybe one of you should knock," she ran and hid behind Knuckles.

Just then the door flung open and two animals stepped out each holding a cardboard box.

"That's Redd," whispered Lucy.

"Where's Sonic?" asked Knuckles.

Redd narrowed his eyes. "That guy's going to be the end of me."

"You bet he is!" said Amy.

Tails noticed the boxes they were holding and remembered that Lucy said that he runs a black market. "Where are you taking those?"

"None of your beeswax freak!"

"Hey!" Amy yelled. "Don't be mean to Tails!" She pulled her hammer out of seemingly nowhere and Redd and his goon jumped back.

Knuckles pointed his fist at them.

Redd glanced from Tails' two tails to Amy's hammer to Knuckles' fists. "Who are you people?" he asked, sweat forming on his face.

They smirked a sonic-ish looking smirk.

"You want to find out?"


	18. Chapter 18: Saving the Day

Chapter 18: Saving the Day

Sonic and Josh had been running for a while they had inspected every truck they saw.

Josh stopped to catch his breath.

Sonic stopped and looked around. "Still no sign of her. Get the feeling that Redd might have lied to us?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," he panted. "I'd actually already thought of that.

"Hmm, maybe we should go back and get the real information out of him," he started to walk away.

"Hey," he pointed to a billboard advertising something called The Green Acre Estates. "That's where Copper and Booker retired to. They were the guards before Redd gave them enough money to retire. We thought he was trying to help, he said new guards would come but they never showed up," he said puzzled.

"You already told me that story."

"Right, sorry."

They started to head back to Redd's when Josh heard someone call Sonic's name.

He turned to see four animals running up to them. "Hey, are those friends of yours?"

"Who?" he turned just as Amy plowed into him and threw her arms around him.

"Sonic! You're OK!"

"Amy!" he pushed her away.

"What do you know he does remember her," Knuckles said as he walked up.

Sonic took a step away from Amy. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We were looking for you, silly!"

Tails flew up to Sonic. "Hey, Sonic!"

"Tails! How've you been?"

Knuckles raised an eyespace. "What are you wearing?" he motioned to Sonic's uniform.

"Don't ask."

"I just did…."

Lucy looked around worried. "Where's Kailey?"

"We don't know," said Josh, now mad. "We think Redd sent us on a wild goose chase. We're going back there now."

"What makes you think he'll tell you the truth this time?" asked Lucy.

"Wait," said Tails, he remembered that Redd was running out the door when they found him. "He seemed to be in a hurry with those cardboard boxes, could he have maybe been leaving?"

"You mean…leaving and not coming back?" Lucy asked getting even more worried

"Maybe."

"Great," Josh said sarcastically. "In an entire city my sister is missing and I don't know how to find her."

Lucy looked down sadly.

"What do we do?" asked Amy.

"Well we can't give up," said Sonic. He walked ahead of them then turned back. "He might not be at his shop, but if he's not we'll find him. And we won't stop until he _does_ tell us the truth. Anyone have a better idea?"

They all shook their head no.

"OK then, let's go," he took off and Amy, Knuckles and Tails took off right behind him.

"Wait!" Lucy called after them. "We're supposed to keep up?"

Josh just shrugged before running off after them.

* * *

><p>The van pulled up to Redd's shop. The goons began loading things into the back.<p>

"What happened to your eye?" one of the goons in the van asked Redd.

"Don't worry about that. Do you know how to get to the old abandoned buildings in the North West corner of town?"

"Yeah."

"OK, take the van there. We'll meet you there."

He nodded and they drove off.

"Why do we have to be in such a hurry?" Goose asked.

"Cause there's no telling when he'll be back."

"Oh yeah, we don't know when he'll be back from the wild… duck chase?"

"Goose chase."

"I take offense to that!"

Redd just glared at him.

He ducked his head. "Never mind."

They walked back into the shop.

* * *

><p>"What will we do if he's not there?" asked Lucy. The other three had slowed down so her and Josh could keep up.<p>

"Probably ask around, someone might know where he went," said Josh.

"How will we get him to tell us the truth?"

"I don't know," said Sonic. "We'll beat it out of him, or smash every fake painting until he tells us, or go everywhere he says until he runs out of places to send us," he sounded kind of mad.

"Are you OK?" Amy asked him.

"I'm fine," _"I just can't believe I got her kidnapped,"_ he thought to himself.

Josh ran up to him and tapped on his shoulder, he pointed to a white van that was stuck at a red light behind another car. "Doesn't the guy in that van look like one of Redd's thieves?"

Sonic turned toward the van. "You're right…" he walked towards it.

The guy in the van looked up and saw Sonic. He said something to the driver and they drove up onto the sidewalk over the curb and onto another street.

"Definitely one of Redd's thieves," said Sonic. He took off after the van with the others following him.

Knuckles glided to a tall building and began climbing up.

The goons drove down an alley.

Sonic ran ahead and stopped in their path.

The goons didn't stop.

"Sonic!" Amy yelled when she saw the van driving towards him.

Knuckles jumped down from a nearby building and punched the van knocking it on it's side.

"Where were you?" asked Sonic.

"I took a shortcut."

The goons crawled out of the van and Sonic and Knuckles got ready to fight.

The other four ran up.

"What's in the van?" asked Lucy.

Tails opened the back and they saw Kailey all tied up.

"Kailey!" Josh and Lucy said in unison.

"Untie her," said Tails. "I got to help Sonic and Knuckles," he stepped away from the van and saw the goons lying on the ground knocked out. "Oh…never mind."

Josh untied Kailey.

As soon as she was untied she hugged him.

"I hope this doesn't count as babying you," he joked.

"I'm sorry," she said.

Sonic ran over to the back of the van. "OK guys, we've got no time to lose we have to find-"

Kailey let go of Josh and hugged Sonic before he could finish his sentence. "I knew you'd come save me," she said.

"Kailey," he finished.

"Nooooo!" they heard someone yell. Redd was now standing in the alley. He looked around the alley, his van was knocked over, his goons lie on the ground knocked out, Kailey was rescued and all of his least favorite people were all standing in the alley. He threw down the cardboard box he was holding and began stomping the ground. "You always ruin my plans! Ever since you showed up you've been nothing but trouble!" he pointed at Sonic.

"Yeah, he's good at that," said Knuckles.

"Geesh, what a brat," Kailey commented on how Crazy Redd was acting.

He started jumping up and down until he fell over onto the pavement.

"Now that you're done pitching a fit will you leave New Hope alone?"

"Fine!" he spat. "You win for now, but I _will _be back, I_ will _own this town!"

"Yeah whatever," said Sonic. "You all take this stolen stuff back to New Hope, I'll meet you there."

"Where are you going?" Kailey asked finally letting go of him.

"You'll see," he said before running off.


	19. Chapter 19: New Hope

Chapter 19: New Hope

"Where is he?" Kailey asked waiting by the gate of New Hope.

Josh just shrugged. "So where are you guys from anyway?" he asked turning to Tails.

"It's probably a little confusing; we actually come from another world."

"So… you are aliens?"

"In a way, yeah."

"Cool."

They saw a turtle walk up with a pelican beside him.

"Hey, Tortimer," said Kailey. "What are you doing here?"

Amy leaned towards Kailey and whispered, "Who's he?"

"Our mayor," Kailey whispered.

"I have to think you youngons," said Tortimer. "For bringing back some of our stolen stuff and saving New Hope from Crazy Redd."

"Thank you mayor," said Amy. "But we can't take all the credit."

"No, you have to thank Sonic too," said Josh. "He's the main one who did everything."

"Where is he?" asked Tortimer.

"We don't know," Knuckles said with his arms crossed.

"I'm right here."

They turned around and saw Sonic standing there with two dogs behind him. Amy, Knuckles and Tails were confused when they saw the dogs, but Josh and Kailey were shocked.

"Copper, Booker?" Kailey asked.

"Sonic informed us of what had happened when we retired" said Copper. "We're sorry. We didn't know what Redd was up to."

"You're back to guard New Hope?" asked Lucy.

He nodded. "Until we can train new guards."

"We'll keep Crazy Redd away," said Booker. "I hope…."

"So, are you ready to go?" Knuckles asked Sonic.

"Go?" asked Kailey.

"I have to go back to my world," Sonic told her.

She looked down at the ground. "I know… you saved the day and now it's time to run off into the sunset," she looked back up at him. "Will you be back?"

"Of course I will, I'll have to come back and see how you're all doing. Although if Redd _does_ come back I have a feeling you'll be able to take care of him."

"Even if we don't _need_ you…."

"I'll be back," he smiled at her and she hugged him.

Josh walked over to stand next to Kailey. "We should give it to him now."

She nodded.

"Give me what?"

Josh reached into his pocket and pulled out a red shirt. "Every hero needs a costume," he said handing it to Sonic. He smiled at Kailey who smiled back.

Sonic didn't get the joke, but he liked the shirt. "Thanks!"

"It's a number one shirt," said Josh. "Cause you're number one!" He gave him a thumbs up.

"And it matches your shoes," Kailey added.

Josh turned to her. "Since when do you care about that?"

"What do you mean?"

"You wear red shoes all the time and they don't match half of what you wear."

She started to say something when Sonic interrupted. "Thanks for the shirt guys," he was already wearing it.

Tortimer walked up to him. "Before you go I would like to thank you for bringing hope back to the words New Hope, and I would like to present you…" he turned to the pelican. "What was I wanting to present to him?"

She handed him a bag.

"Ah yes, I would like to present you these bells!"

"Thanks," he said taking the bells. _"What good is this going to do in my world?" _he wondered.

"What would Sonic need with bells?" Knuckles whispered to Tails.

Tails shrugged.

"Can we go now?" Knuckles asked impatiently.

"Yeah, let's go," Sonic took a step back.

Tails held up his arm with the armband he got from Eggman. "I don't know if it will take us all back or not."

"I hope this works," said Amy.

"Hold on," said Tails.

Knuckles and Sonic stood on either side of Tails, each with a hand on his shoulder. Amy put her arms around Sonic. Tails was about to press the button when someone yelled "Wait!"

Mitzi ran towards them. "Stop them! They're aliens! They tied me to a tree and left me there!"

"Oh no, not her," said Knuckles.

"They've come to invade us!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Josh.

"They're not aliens, they're heroes!" said Kailey.

"They came from the sky, I saw them!"

Lucy sighed, then she thought of something. She handed a white boom box to Mitzi.

Mitzi looked at it, surprised. "This is my boom box that Redd stole, how did you get it back?"

Lucy pointed at Sonic. "Him and his friends stopped Redd, they're not going to steal from us anymore!"

She just stared at her boom box. "But they tied me to a tree…" she mumbled.

"Can we go _now?_" Knuckles asked.

Sonic nodded.

Tails pressed the button and a hole appeared in the sky above them, this time wind was blowing up towards the hole.

Sonic saw Nook walking up. He threw the work uniform at his face. "You can have your shirt back!" he said as the four were pulled up into the portal.

Mitzi passed out.

Josh and Kailey waved goodbye until the hole disappeared.

The four were thrown out of the gateway back into their world.

They got up of the floor to find themselves now surrounded by robots.

"Guys," said Rouge, being held in the Egg Guard's fist. "They didn't believe me."

"I can see that," said Knuckles.

Eggman turned the gateway off. "You might have escaped the other world, Sonic, but you will not escape my army or robots!"

Sonic stretched. "Robots? Is that what you call these heaps of metal?" he pointed his thumb at a group of robots.

"Get them!"

Sonic ran around the room spin dashing the robots.

Amy tapped on Knuckle's shoulder. "Throw me up to that robot," she said pointing to the Egg Guard.

"Alright," he grabbed her arm and spun around a few times before hurling her at the robot.

In midair she swung her hammer at the Egg Guard.

It fell backwards crushing a wall, dropping Rouge as it fell.

"Not again!" Eggman yelled as he watched the wall collapse.

Amy landed on top of the robot.

"Thanks, pinky," Rouge told her before flying at the robots.

"Pinky?"

Tails hurled a wrench at a robot. The robot dodged and it hit Eggman instead.

"OW!"

Sonic was running around the edges of the room barreling through robots. He skidded to a stop to keep from hitting a robot that Knuckles had thrown across the room. He gave Knuckles a thumbs up after the robot had broken against the wall and then he kept running. "What do you make these things out of, Eggman?" he asked as he homing attacked right through one. "Tin foil?"

His face turned red. "Why you…."

"I know," said Rouge agreeing with Sonic. She kicked a robot into another one. "We've already beat half of them."

"So you think it's going to be that easy do you?" said Eggman. "Robots!"

Another army of robots ran into the room.

"More?" asked Knuckles. "This day just gets better and better," he said sarcastically.

"Ah, where are they coming from?" Amy asked.

Rouge looked around at all the robots. "Oh great," she mumbled. "I didn't want to have to give it away but do you need this Sonic?" she pulled something shiny out of her pocket and held it up for him to see.

His eyes widened. "How many of those do you have?"

"Seven…."

"Throw them to me!" He ran towards her and she threw them. He jumped into the air and caught them turning gold. "Stay out of my way!" he told them now Super Sonic. He flew through the room sending robots flying.

The rest had to duck to dodge pieces of flying metal.

Within seconds the robots were destroyed. He landed in front of Eggman.

Eggman slowly backed away then ran out of the room.

"Why didn't you give us those before?" Knuckles asked Rouge.

"Cause they're jewels, duh!"

The Egg Guard slowly stood up.

"Look out!" Amy yelled.

Sonic turned around just in time to dodge a punch from the giant robot. The Egg Guard punched at him again and he flew out of the way. He then flew at the Egg Guard, he flew right though it braking a hole in it's chest.

The robot fell down and crushed another wall.

"Sonic, you did it!" said Tails.

Sonic flew down and grabbed the four. He broke through the ceiling and flew away.


	20. Chapter 20: Back to Normal,  for Now

Chapter 20: Everything's Back to Normal…for Now

It was an hour after Sonic had left. Josh and Kailey had helped everyone find their stolen things. Josh was now helping someone move something to their house, leaving Kailey where Sonic and his friends had left.

She kicked a small stone. She heard footsteps and looked up to see her brother walking up. "Hey."

"Hey," he stopped and looked at the sky. "Cool to know that there's other worlds, huh?" he looked at her.

She was still staring at the ground not smiling.

His own smile faded. "What's up?"

She looked up at him. "I have to apologize."

He looked confused. "For what?"

"The way I've been acting, I've been a brat to you and I'm sorry."

"Oh yeah, that."

"You're a little overprotective sometimes, but… since there were thieves running around I guess I can't blame you."

He smiled again. "I forgive you. About the overprotective thing, you have to admit you're not the easiest thing to look after," he joked.

She rolled her eyes.

They started walking.

"So do you think they'll ever come back?" He asked.

"Who?"

"Sonic."

"Of course he will, he told me he would."

Josh smiled. Kailey had a hard time believing anyone, but she could trust Sonic. _"Maybe she'll be able to trust me too someday," _he thought, _"or maybe she already does."_ "So what now?"

"Hmm, think we should finish paying off Sonic's house?"

"Why?"

"For when he comes back, he'll need a place to stay." Her face lit up. "And we can decorate it!"

"Decorate it? In what?"

"I don't know, I'll think of something. And I'll plant lots of flowers outside! Red and blue ones, cause he's blue and wears red."

He laughed. "Sounds good."

"You'll help me pay off the house right?" she started to get worried when he didn't answer. "Right?"

"I don't know… will you get me in trouble again?"

She stopped walking. "Again? When have I got you in trouble?"

"Maybe when you got yourself kidnapped?"

"That wasn't my fault."

"Or when you suggested that Sonic stay at the house before talking to Nook? Or when you talked us into writing that post on the message board?"

"We haven't got in trouble for that."

"Not yet."

She sighed. "I won't get you in trouble."

He thought for a minute. "OK."

"Alright! Let's go!" she took off towards Nook's.

"Wait, now?" he asked, but she was already half way there. He shook his head. "I think Sonic rubbed off on her," he took off after her.

* * *

><p>Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Amy and Rouge stood on a cliff staring at Eggman's base below.<p>

"Will you ever go back?" asked Amy.

"Eventually," said Sonic.

"So now what?" asked Knuckles.

"I do what I always do at the end of an adventure," said Sonic, smiling. "Go find a new one."

"Well I'm tired," said Rouge. "I'm going to go home," she smirked. "Or go steal the Master Emerald," she quickly flew off.

"Why you, get back here!" Knuckles yelled chasing after her.

"Hey Tails, want to come with me?" asked Sonic.

"Sorry Sonic, I got to get back to my workshop. See you tomorrow!" He waved and ran off.

"Looks like it's just us," Amy said to Sonic as she watched Tails go. She turned to where Sonic was standing to see that he was gone. "Sonic?" She saw him running away already a ways away. "Sonic!" She chased after him. "Wait, Soooniiiiic!"

The End.


End file.
